Anti-gerrymandering proposal moving closer to Michigan ballot

Voters Not Politicians has gathered more than 400,000 signatures, more than the number signatures that must be validated, to put the proposal on the 2018 ballot. The proposal would remove the Legislature as the drawer of district lines.

The campaign’s mission is to end the practice of partisan legislatures drawing voting districts that favor the party in charge and, replace it with a nonpartisan commission of voters. If the proposal passes in November, a 13-member commission — four Republicans, four Democrats, and five independent voters — will be chosen at random from pools of voters to redraw the district maps after the 2020 census.

(Editor’s note: The preceding paragraph was changed to more accurately reflect how commissioners will be chosen. The first paragraph was also changed to show an increase in the number of signatures gathered.)

Katie Fahey, president and treasurer of Voters Not Politicians, wrote in a press release, “Citizens are unhappy to learn that politicians get to choose their own voters instead of voters choosing them. Michigan is ready to end the extreme partisan gerrymandering, by both parties, that robs voters of their constitutional rights to hold representatives accountable at the ballot box.”

Every 10 years, after each U.S. Census, district lines are redrawn based on population movement. The Michigan Constitution states that the Legislature draws district lines. Republicans have dominated the Michigan Legislature since 2011.

According to Voters Not Politicians, in 2016 Democrats and Republicans running for the Michigan House received about the same number of votes. However, Republicans won 63 seats in the House, whereas Democrats received 47. In addition, a study by The Center for Michigan found that senatorial districts were even more imbalanced.

State Sen. Curtis Hertel, Jr. (D–East Lansing) said he is apart of the most gerrymandered body [senate] in the country.

Created by Christine Kanerva using R coding software.

Hertel said, “For people who care about issues like gun safety, or the environment, women’s health issues, should care about gerrymandering because while 70 percent of people in Michigan don’t want guns in schools, we the Legislature just voted to put guns in schools.”

Gerrymandering creates districts that concentrate the minority party into few districts, then distribute the majority into districts where they hold small hold majorities. This results in the majority party winning a larger proportion of seats than it had votes in the electorate.

Motion graphic on gerrymandering

Matt Grossmann, director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research in East Lansing.

Matt Grossmann, director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research in East Lansing, said, “It’s not to your benefit to have overwhelmingly your-party districts, so if you have a district that’s 90 percent Democrat that means that you’ve wasted about 30 percent of your vote. Anything over 60 percent is just wasted votes that could’ve gone into some other district.”

Bob LaBrant, an attorney who is fighting the proposal, said that Voters Not Politicians isn’t telling the whole story.

“Call me an excessive partisan, but I smell a rat,” said LaBrant.

LaBrant’s critique is that districts, like the 14th Congressional District, that Voters Not Politicians point to as being gerrymandered, aren’t actually gerrymandered. Rather, LaBrant said Detroit lost 25 percent of its population between the 2000 and 2010 census, resulting in the population spreading outward into the suburbs.

In Michigan, the 14th Congressional District is often used as an example of gerrymandering. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Labrant said that there are other factors that go into drawing district lines other than creating party winning districts. A major factor is drawing majority-minority districts that have a racial minority group(s) in control of the majority of a district’s total population.

“Sure, it looks ugly by extending that district all the way to Oakland County to capture the African-American population of Pontiac,” said LaBrant. “But guess what? If you hadn’t done that, you wouldn’t have gotten to 55 percent of the voter age population of African Americans.

“There was a Hispanic community that was split in half and what that does is that it dilutes that voting population and their ability to elect someone of their choice,” said Byrum.

Growing up, Byrum’s family moved because of gerrymandering. Her mom, a state representative at the time, was drawn out of the district she represented.

Dianne Byrum, current Michigan State University Board of Trustees. Photo courtesy of Byrum & Fisk

Dianne Byrum, who went on to the Michigan Senate and now on the Michigan State University Board of Trustees, said, “It forced me to make a decision to either stay where I was at, and run in a district that was redrawn for a Republican to win… or I could move and run in the district that I largely represented. So, I ended up moving.”

Her daughter, who also served in the Legislature, said “So yeah, these are the games politicians play and I’m a product of it. I had to go to a different high school for two years as a result.”

State Rep. Jon Hoadley (D-Kalamazoo) said change is just the right thing to do.

“At the end of the day, we should be competing on policies and ideas as opposed to trying to rig the lines to maximize one party over the other,” said Hoadley.

Christine is a journalism and political science major at Michigan State University. She graduated from Pinckney Community High School in 2014 and was given the New Tech High School "Director Award." In high school, Christine completed a 40-hour internship at the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan. She completed a college-internship at WJBK FOX 2 Detroit with Katie Fehr, director of community service, and anchor Deena Centofanti. Christine is also a high school coach for the Pinckney JV Pom and Dance Team. She values her faith, family and education.

Read Next

Gordon Trowbridge, spokesman for Slotkin’s re-election campaign, said from a campaign standpoint, he has noticed a difference this year in public participation. Trowbridge said it seems like voters are aware this is a big moment for Michigan because a lot of national issues addressed can also have a significant impact on a local level. For example, concerns about medical costs and water quality is at the top of that list.

“What was successful for Slotkin in 2018 and so far this year, was to be pragmatic toward these issues,” he said.

Comments are closed.

About the Spartan Newsroom

News and information from the Michigan State University School of Journalism. Content is produced by MSU students under the guidance of journalism faculty.